War on Ferrara shakes up Italian politics: 1482-84

The Italian Guerra di Ferrara

A story of three men, three big cities and three smaller cities and the pope will help reveal more of the inter-relatedness and interconnectedness of the players in our period.

In 1480 Girolomo Riario was ruler of Imola near the eastern seaboard of Italy, south of Ferrara, east of Bologna and due west of Ravenna. Most of the landscape that spread east and north of Imola was marsh or salt mines and land reclaimed from marsh. Famously these same marshes had kept the Huns and the Goths, the Lombards away from each other so well that Justinian named them as property for the Catholic Church centuries before.
By the fifteenth century, Pope Sixtus IV wanted to increase the size of the papal states which did still include Rimini and Ravenna but very little of the lands around them. Girolamo Riario was the son of Beatrice della Rovere and also the nephew of Sixtus IV and acted in these days as his Captain General overseeing the papal armies. He was the military arm of the pope, as such things were needed then.  This same Girolamo Riario was also one of the conspirators in the recent plot against the de Medici of Florence. He's lucky he got away. But after a couple years he was looking to help his uncle in other areas. In short order Riario took nearby Forli and asked his uncle the pope to condone it. He did and next Riario turned his attention to Ferrara.

There is little confusion in the record as to his or the pope's intentions but, Ferrara and Venice by their actions help us understand what these might be. The duke of Milan was interested and so was Lorenzo de Medici in Florence. The pope wanted to increase his revenue and power in Italy. Traditionally there had been papal holdings in Ravenna and along the coast and then,  turning south over the mountains, a broad swath of lands and cities loyal to the papcy could almost stretch it's way to Rome. All of these had been contested in some way since Roman times. So for the current papacy, increasing control over these areas would indeed be a boon in establishing some kind of control, along the highways, and in the towns, with loyal captains who could facilitate all manner of deeds.

It is also just another example of how individual actors in the right places and with the right backing could upset the careful balance of decades of peace, centuries of protocol and mutually assured sovereignty. Though not the first, Sixtus IV, a proud exponent of his family the della Rovere clan, continued and helped make 'traditional' the pattern of recruiting favorites or relatives to the increasingly important position of Captain-General.

One such captain with this title of Captain-General that won greater autonomy for the papacy was Roger I, son of Louis VIII and brother of St Louis in the thirteenth century. He had wrestled control of the kingdom of Naples and held on to it as a city and a force capable of protecting the pope and his interests from all external incursions by any other force or power.

This became a traditional role, that the king at Naples would fulfill - with a few exceptions - for nearly 200 years. But by the later end of the 1400's, the pattern had been disrupted. For one thing a descendant of the House of Aragon had taken and held Naples and his illegitimate son, in turn, Ferdinand I held it until 1494. For one reason or other the Aragons and Ferdinand had reasons to disagree with the wishes of the pope and by the time of the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478 they had plenty of reasons to think worse.

There are three men and three small cities in this story. Girolomo Riario, Duke of Imola as well as now, controlling Forli, is one actor and two of the cities. Ferdinand I, was king of the not-so small Naples, the pope Sixtus IV was at Rome, the Venetians in Venice. So who was left? Ercole d'Este I was proclaimed Duke of Ferrara in 1471 by Pope Paul II though the duchy had already been in his family for centuries. It was situated as it was at the head of the delta of the river Po that drained into the head of the Adriatic, and was nearly surrounded by salt marshes. Not just any salt marshes but the ones where Venice had held the salt mine monopoly for centuries. By the time Girolomo Riario took Forli, Ercole d'Este had been slowly taking parts of this area for ten years and Venice would turn around and take it back. 

I say 'took' Forli, but in fact, Riario gained it through marriage by wedding Caterina Sforza, an arrangement set up as a generous gift of the Duke of Milan for his daughter's dowry and condoned by his uncle, pope Sixtus IV, Francesco della Rovere. When they were married, Riario became not just the husband of the daugter of the Duke of Milan, but also ruler of Forli as well as Imola, perfectly placed to halt any actions by the duke of Ferrara with regard to the salt marshes. 

This was potentially important not least of which because Duke Ercole d'Este was married to the daughter of the king of Naples, Ferdinand I of the House of Aragon. It was possible that if Bologna stayed neutral and Venice could be enlisted to help, that Ferrara and the salt mines could be crushed in between Riario in the south and Venice's force in the north. And with the right outcomes, Rome could extend their papal lands as well as a firmer peace with Venice and not have to worry about Naples or his forces intervening. That was the theory.

So it was one of those consequential footfalls when everyone heard the story of a priest in Ferrara that was jailed there by the Venetian visdomino in 1481 for not paying a debt. Somebody had to look after the interests of Venetians in Ferrara as anywhere else so, as in many other places, a visdomino -- 'force-master' -- was placed in these various places to make sure Venice or, at least her representative could have a say in the day to day happenstance that might come up. Like a foreign consulate or embassy, the visdomino could be a real help to those Venetians abroad and distressed. Not this time. The vicar of the bishop of Ferrara excommunicated the visdomino from the Republic of Ferrara and threw him out of the city.

Word spread and very soon the lists of antagonists formed up.

The pope and Girolomo Riario took the side of Venice, but so did Genoa and the Marquis de Montferrat showing France's interest in the matter.

Ferrara and Ercole d'Este of course was aided by his brother-in-law Alfonso II son and heir to the king of Naples and recent victor over the Turks in Otranto, so a seasoned captain. But the allies and other friends of Ferrara quickly grew and agreeing to be led by Federico da Montefeltro included neighbors like Ludovico il Moro, duke of Milan, Federico Gonzaga of Mantua and Giovanni Bentivoglio of next-door Bologna.

From the outset, the conflict was dominated by Venice who in a few months had taken the area around the works at Commachia and laid siege to Ferrara.

Alfonso II of Naples -- at this time the duke of Calabria -- had approached from the south but was soundly defeated by Roberto Malatesta the lord of Rimini commanding the Venetian forces. On August 17, 1482 Rovigo had capitulated to Venice, but on August 21, Alfonso barely escaped with his life and the Battle of Campo Morto  near Velletri went in the history books as a major loss for the prestige of Naples. But Malatesta had caught fever in the swamps so it is said, as did so many in that season of war and he died in September.

The pope it is said, was shocked at the advancement of Venice and began insisting they stop their attacks. They refused and continued their siege of Ferrara. By early summer of 1483, the pope had reversed position, put an interdict on the Republic of Venice, and had already finalized a peace treaty with Naples in December '82.

The siege in Ferrara dragged on though and Venice wrote to the new king of France, Charles VIII asking, that if he might want to come take his undeniable inheritance of Naples, now might be a good time to do it. It took him ten years. The war up north meanwhile was good for the della Rovere family and it's hold on Rome too as many longtime adversaries were at least partly overcome, like the Orsini, and Colonna families in Rome. Out in the field, Alfonso's army began ransacking Visconti and Sforza strongholds and Venice was caught up in it as well attacking Milan's fortresses. Everyone seemed distracted.

In 1484 negotiations sprang anew and by August a peace treaty was signed. The treaty of Bagnola was a victory for Venice. She got to keep Rovigo, much of the Po delta and was welcomed back into the church. Ercole d'Este could rebuild his city into something stronger and after such a great humiliation, in time, he could carry more dignity. He would stay neutral in the Italian Wars for the rest of his life and be a patron of the arts and correspond with Savonarola. He died at the age of 74 leaving his city to his son who in turn ruled it for thirty years. So Ferrara besieged, nearly dismantled would continue.

Five days after the treaty of Bagnola, Sixtus IV died after complaining that he didn't get to agree on a final version and that the treaty was too lenient on Venice. Lord Norwich repeats the one about Sixtus IV, sick in bed received word of the treaty and called it 'full of disgrace and confusion.'  Girolomo Riario retreated in time to Imola and Forli. His wife temporarily took and held Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome after Francesco's death for safe-keeping and stayed there until she got word that her husband's assets were still intact.  It was only then that she herself returned to Forli where she then became legend as the last independent Lady of Forli. Her own story really is a great one -- if we only knew. Girolomo himself, the last of those Pazzi conspirators against the de'Medici still left alive, was assassinated in Forli in 1488. Caterina continued to defend her city. After her death, both Imola and Forli fell into Spanish possession.

In 1485 Ferdinand I king of Naples suffered a revolt at the hands of his nobles. The rebellion was crushed and the conspirators after having been promised amnesty were killed. The last ten years of his life were not peaceful and the negotiations with Milan and Pope Alexander VI may have wore him out as he died before Charles VIII of France could try and take him. Don Ferrante was 70 years old and had been king of Naples for nearly 36 years.

Three men, the king of Naples, the Duke of Ferrara and the duke of Imola, Captain General of the pope. Three cities, Ferrara, Imola, Forli, a pope and Venice.